Shrubville

So which one did he draw first? And why did he change it?
I think it would be much easier to draw a shirt onto shirtless Winslow than to try to remove an existing shirt. So, as lazy as he is, he probably added the shirt later.

On the other hand, it looks like he was hiding Winslow's torso the previous 3 days, like he always intended to reveal the hilarious t-shirt today. This would imply that he actually did some planning, so it seems unlikely. More likely he was only showing Winslow's head because it was easier than drawing his whole body.
My guess is that he drew the "hugs movement" gag as a subtle jab at the peace movement. Then he remembered that he has no gift for subtlety, so he went for obvious instead.

Looks like
Yahoo got the clothed version, even though it's provided by Gocomics. Last minute change, or the syndicate's handiwork?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but now I'm anxious to hear the next podcast so Stantis can explain this. Will he blame it on his editors again? Did someone get a rough draft and think it was the final product? Very interesting. It looks like he was playing a little CYA with the t-shirt-less one - which is typical Stantis, not wanting to tackle something directly but instead referring to the peace movement as the "hugs" movement.

Winston is the one in the t-shirt, Winslow is the one without. This is the new third character we've been waiting for.

Fact: Major Donnybrook is the undercover cop who busted Sen. Craig.

Based on typical comic strip publication screw-ups (Stephan Pastis's "Pearls Before Swine" treasuries, with strip-by-strip commentary, are a great source for information on these), I think that probably it was a last-minute rewrite, and not all papers (inluding CJo's apparently) got the new version.

The question here, really, is why was it changed? I think that Stantis thought it would be cooler if he had a fake "Hugs Movement" instead of a real "Peace Movement" so it would seem like a metaphor.

For a fleeting moment, I thought the half-visible symbol on the t-shirt in Panel 2 might have been a hammer and sickle. And I admit, I kind of appreciate seeing the word "donnybrook" used correctly, even if it reeks of thesaurus abuse(whoever named the streets in my town apparently thought it was a picturesque name for a lane).

LA Times had the non-T-shirt version.

I also look forward to hearing Stantis's explanation for this on his podcast. I mean, he has to put out a podcast for this, right? It's bound to generate tons of mail.

There will be a new magazine about the comics debuting later this year. Called "Stay Tooned," it will only be published four times per year. The first issue will focus on cartoonists from the South, and one of the cartoonists they are going to be profiling in that issue is -- you guessed it -- Scott Stantis, creator of "Sydney," "The Buckets," and "Prickly City," and editorial cartoonist for "The Birmingham News."

It will be very interesting to see what Stantis has to say for himself about recent "Prickly City" strips, in particular the horrendously botched "Winslow for President" storyline, the height of cartooning laziness "Carmen Tugging a Rope" series, and of course the nearly incomprehensible "Winslow is Literally Owned By China" series. Maybe he won't talk about them at all, and will instead talk about random crap like he does in his rare podcasts. Regardless, I will definitely subscribe, even if it's just to see what he says in that first issue.

Read more at the Daily Cartoonist:
www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2007/08/30/new-quarterly-cartoon-publication-to-debut-in-november/

Or in Editor & Publisher:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/syndicates/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003632725

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